-1745819772711.png){kind=logo}
ST. LOUIS – Dylan Crews’ path back to the active roster took another big step Wednesday when the Nationals outfielder began throwing for the first time since suffering an oblique strain seven weeks ago.
Crews participated with his fellow outfielders prior to tonight’s game against the Cardinals in defensive drills and shagged fly balls during batting practice. He was purposely being cautious with his throws, but he felt comfortable enough to make a lunging, backhanded grab of a line drive hit to his right, a good test for his core muscles.
Though he isn’t taking BP on the field yet, Crews has been hitting in the batting cage for the last week, further signs of his progress.
“He’s feeling good right now,” interim manager Miguel Cairo said. “Yesterday he threw from the outfield. He’s been hitting in the cages. It’s a good sign. Yesterday I talked to him and asked how he’s feeling, and he said he’s feeling great. Just waiting to see this protocol he has got to follow with the trainers, but hopefully he can come back sooner than later.”
Crews hurt himself May 20 on a check swing, tugging at his right side. He was shut down from anything resembling baseball activity for more than a month while the oblique muscle healed, and has been slowly ramping up his rehab since cleared to begin.
The Orioles have made the following roster moves:
- Recalled RHP Colin Selby from Triple-A Norfolk.
- Optioned C David Bañuelos to Triple-A Norfolk after Game 1 of today’s doubleheader.
ST. LOUIS – It’s been an eventful week, to put it mildly. The Nationals have been in chaos mode since Sunday, and only on Wednesday did things start to feel a bit closer to normal again. Tonight, though, presents an opportunity to not just feel normal again but feel good about themselves. With a win over the Cardinals, the Nats would complete a series victory.
That’s easier said than done, of course. The offense needs to put together quality at-bats like it did during Wednesday night’s 8-2 win at Busch Stadium, and that group needs to do it against an opposing pitcher who has owned them for a while. Miles Mikolas has not been an effective starter in several years, but he has thoroughly dominated the Nationals over the last three seasons, posting a 1.95 ERA and 1.012 WHIP in five total starts. In 79 starts against everyone else since 2023, the right-hander has a 5.28 ERA and 1.324 WHIP. There’s your challenge for tonight.
On the mound, Michael Soroka wants to bounce back from a ragged July 4 start against the Red Sox, one in which he allowed the first five batters he faced in the top of the fifth to reach (and ultimately score after he was pulled). Seven total runs were charged to the right-hander that night. As always, he needs to show he can finish what he started, though it will be interesting to see how Miguel Cairo manages his start as opposed to Davey Martinez.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS at ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
Where: Busch Stadium
Gametime: 7:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 90 degrees, wind 6 mph out to left field
NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
2B Luis García Jr.
DH Josh Bell
1B Nathaniel Lowe
3B Paul DeJong
RF Daylen Lile
C Drew Millas
CF Jacob Young
Washington Nationals left-handed pitching prospect Alex Clemmey has been selected to represent the organization in the 2025 All-Star Futures Game at Truist Park in Atlanta on Saturday, July 12. The 26th All-Star Futures Game features the top Minor League prospects competing as part of All-Star Saturday.
Clemmey, 19, is the Nationals No. 4 prospect according to Baseball America, and the No. 5 prospect in the organization according to MLBPipeline.com. He leads the Nationals Organization and ranks third in the South Atlantic League with 88 strikeouts. Those 88 strikeouts are also the most by any player in Minor League Baseball under 20 years old, 12 more than the next closest teenager. He also leads all Nationals farmhands with 12.25 strikeouts per 9.0 innings, which is good for fourth in the South Atlantic League and 11th in all of Minor League Baseball (min. 60.0 IP).
A second-round pick in the 2023 First-Year Player Draft out of Bishop Hendricken High School (RI), Clemmey was acquired as part of the trade that sent Lane Thomas to the Guardians on July 29, 2024. He is 4-4 with a 3.34 ERA in 15 games this season with High-A Wilmington this season and has limited opposing hitters to a .213 average against in 64.2 innings of work.
The 6-foot-6, 205-pound lefty helped the Fredericksburg Nationals to the league title in 2024 with five strikeouts in 4.0 innings of two-hit, one-run ball in the Championship Series.
The 2025 All-Star Futures Game will air live exclusively on MLB Network and will be simulcast on MLB.tv, MLB.com and on the MLB app at 4 p.m. ET. on July 12.
The Orioles have reached the point in their season where a quality start from a veteran on a one-year contract raises hopes and also the chances of another trade.
Charlie Morton remains on an upward trajectory after a disastrous beginning with his new club, holding the Mets to one run in six innings this afternoon in the Orioles’ 3-1 victory over the Mets before an announced Game 1 crowd of 25,262 at Camden Yards.
Gunnar Henderson’s first-career pinch-hit homer, a two-run shot off reliever Ryne Stanek in the eighth, made the difference and improved the Orioles to 41-50. A sweep would get them eight games below .500 for the first time since May 6.
"It’s good, especially with what happened the other night," said interim manager Tony Mansolino, referencing Tuesday's blown 6-2 lead in the eighth. "I think I probably had a pretty bad attitude there after the first four or five innings, just kind of watching how our offense was performing there for a little bit. And I think (Cody) Asche did too. We kind of all had bad attitudes, the coaches there for a few innings and probably so did the whole dugout as a whole, jokingly of course.
"But it’s nice to struggle for a little bit in the game, and Gunnar comes off the bench and pinch-hits a homer, and just to feel the energy and eruption in the dugout and change some of our unfortunate bad attitudes there for a few innings."
The upcoming amateur draft is doing more than allowing the Orioles to restock the farm system.
It’s also influencing trades.
The Orioles sent high-leverage reliever Bryan Baker to the Rays this morning for a Competitive Balance Round A pick, the 37th overall in the draft. They parted ways with a pitcher under team control through the 2028 season, though out of minor league options, in exchange for a selection that won’t make an impact for at least a couple of years.
Doing so comes across as an indication that the Orioles are punting on 2025 while 10 games below .500 today and needing to pass seven teams to reach the last Wild Card. But it’s a little more complicated than surface observations.
“I think it’s a step in that direction,” said executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias. “I mean, there’s no way around that.”
The Orioles have traded reliever Bryan Baker to the Rays this morning for Tampa Bay's No. 37 pick, in the competitive balance round. FanSided's Robert Murray was first with the Baker trade.
Baker said he felt "shock" after receiving the news, perhaps in part because he's under team control through the 2028 season. He was preoccupied with the "logistics," getting to Boston and "doing my job there."
"I'm sure more thoughts will come to me as the day goes on," he said.
Baker leaves with a 3.52 ERA and 1.096 WHIP, emerging as one of the club's top relievers.
Unfortunately for Baker, his last outing with Orioles on Tuesday resulted in a pair of two-run homers in the eighth inning that erased a 6-2 lead against the Mets.
The Orioles have made the following roster move:
- Selected the contract of C David Bañuelos from Triple-A Norfolk. He will wear No. 91.
The Orioles’ 40-man roster currently has 40 players.
The Orioles today announced that they have acquired a Competitive Balance Round A pick (No. 37) in the 2025 First-Year Player Draft from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for right-handed pitcher BRYAN BAKER.
Baltimore now holds seven of the top 93 selections in this year’s Draft. The first three rounds will take place on Sunday, July 13, at 6 p.m. ET. Rounds 4-20 are on Monday, July 14, at 11:30 a.m. ET.
Baker, 30, was 3-2 with two saves and a 3.52 ERA (15 ER/38.1 IP) with nine walks and 49 strikeouts in a team-high 42 games this season. Over four seasons with the Orioles from 2022-25, he went 12-9 with a 3.73 ERA (73 ER/176.1 IP). Baker was originally claimed off waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays on November 8, 2021.
The Orioles have made the following roster move:
- Appointed LHP Grant Wolfram from Triple-A Norfolk as the 27th man for today’s doubleheader.
ST. LOUIS – First things first: Luis García is not Luis García Jr.
The former is the Nationals’ new 38-year-old reliever, signed on Tuesday. The latter is the Nats’ 25-year-old second baseman, the organization’s longest tenured player having signed as a teenager in 2016. Whose father, Luis García, is the 50-year-old former infielder who played eight big league games for the Tigers in 1999.
Got all that? Good. Just remember this particular article is about Luis García, the 38-year-old reliever, and everything will be fine.
Name confusion aside, the Nationals are happy to have this García as part of their bullpen now, hoping the veteran right-hander can help take some burden off the young arms who have been thrown to the wolves this season, a few of them surviving but several of them having been eaten alive.
“It really helps,” interim manager Miguel Cairo said. “He’s got some experience. We’ve got a lot of young kids, a lot of young pitchers in the bullpen. It’s a good mix to have another veteran out there who can help with the young players.”
The Orioles haven’t announced their starters for the weekend series against the Marlins that closes out the first half, but interim manager Tony Mansolino confirmed that rookie Brandon Young gets the ball on Sunday, and left-hander Trevor Rogers is certain to face his former team the previous afternoon.
This will be a first for Rogers, taken by Miami with the 13th-overall pick in the 2017 draft out of Carlsbad High School in New Mexico.
The Marlins dealt him to the Orioles at last year’s deadline for prospects Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby, who make their respective returns to Camden Yards this weekend. Stowers arrives as a first-time All-Star. Rogers was optioned after only four starts, against the Guardians, Blue Jays, Nationals and Mets. His five starts this year, spread out between May 24 and Sunday, came against the Red Sox, Rays, Rangers twice and Braves.
“It’s gonna be a little strange,” Rogers said earlier this week. “That’s the only team I was with for seven years and they gave me a shot, so I’ll always be thankful for them. A lot of memories, a lot of good teammates over there, a lot of good people over there. So I’m excited to see those people.”
Rogers was an All-Star and Rookie of the Year runner-up to the Reds’ Jonathan India in 2021, the height of a career that dropped him on his head – and down to Triple-A Norfolk after the trade.
ST LOUIS – On day one, Miguel Cairo stayed on course and managed as if he was merely filling in for Davey Martinez. On day two, he decided to veer just a bit into the wild and try something different. And then was rewarded for it.
With a couple of lineup tweaks designed both to get more right-handed hitters into the lineup against an opposing starter with reverse splits and to keep bench players more engaged, Cairo watched his Nationals cruise to an 8-2 victory over the Cardinals, his first as interim manager.
"It was good," Cairo said. "It was good for my friend Davey. This one was for him, because he's the one that put this team together and believed in these players and put the coaching staff together. So this goes to him."
That tweaked lineup, featuring Amed Rosario in the third spot and Alex Call in the sixth spot against St. Louis starter Andre Pallante, jumped out to an early lead and never looked back.
It didn’t hurt, of course, to also have MacKenzie Gore on the mound, the All-Star left-hander turning in another stellar performance to close out his breakthrough first half in style.
The Orioles and Mets won’t play tonight due to inclement weather. The result is a split-admission doubleheader Thursday with Game 1 scheduled for 12:05 p.m. and Game 2 at 5:05 p.m.
This is the sixth postponement for the Orioles, who are 10 games below .500 and 7 ½ back for the last Wild Card.
Charlie Morton will start the first game and Tomoyuki Sugano will start the second. Both teams can call up a 27th man.
Gates for Game 1 will open at 11 a.m., and gates for Game 2 will open at 4 p.m. Tickets for tonight will be valid for Game 2. Original ticket buyers for tonight who can’t attend on Thursday should visit Orioles.com/Weather for options.
The first 10,000 fans attending the first game will receive the Yacht Rock Cap.
ST. LOUIS – Trevor Williams has a partial tear of his elbow ligament, one that will require a surgical procedure that will sideline the Nationals' right-hander until at least early next season, possibly most of the season.
An MRI taken of Williams’ elbow revealed a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament. Because it’s not a full tear, doctors believe it can be treated with an internal brace procedure, the relatively recent, less-invasive surgery that allows a pitcher to return in approximately nine months. Williams will be operated on next Thursday by Alabama orthopedist Jeffrey Dugas, who did caution the 33-year-old he might actually need to perform Tommy John surgery if the ligament appears to be more damaged once he sees it firsthand.
If the internal brace procedure is all that’s required, Williams was told he could return to pitch next April or May. If the ligament has to be reconstructed via Tommy John surgery, he would miss most – potentially all – of the 2026 season.
“It’s unfortunate that’s what it is,” he said. “But I’m glad that we’re going to be able to fix it and get it right.”
The news comes as a blow both to Williams, who made only 30 combined starts the last two seasons due to arm issues, and to the Nationals, who re-signed him to a two-year, $14 million contract over the winter.
ST. LOUIS – Tuesday was not a normal day for the Nationals, who were adjusting to life with a new manager and general manager, then had to go out and play for the first time under that new arrangement (after waiting out a 2-hour, 19-minute rain delay, by the way). The result was a lackluster 4-2 loss to the Cardinals. Could tonight feel more normal for everyone? You would certainly hope so, now that the dust has settled.
The best thing the Nats have going for them is MacKenzie Gore on the mound. The recently named All-Star takes the mound for what will be his final start of the first half. He’s on a full week’s rest after throwing 111 pitches last time out. And his next appearance (should Dave Roberts choose to use him) would come six days from now in Atlanta in the Midsummer Classic.
Interim manager Miguel Cairo wrote out a lineup card Tuesday night that could’ve been penciled in by Davey Martinez, with everyone in their usual spots. That’s not the case tonight. Even though the Cardinals are starting right-hander Andre Pallante, Cairo is using a couple of guys who typically start against lefties: Amed Rosario (batting third and playing second base) and Alex Call (batting sixth and playing right field). Is that a matchup thing, or is that perhaps an attempt to put a better defensive lineup out there with his ace on the mound? We’ll ask him shortly.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS at ST LOUIS CARDINALS
Where: Busch Stadium
Gametime: 7:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 87 degrees, wind 6 mph in from left field
NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
2B Amed Rosario
DH Josh Bell
1B Nathaniel Lowe
RF Alex Call
3B Brady House
C Riley Adams
CF Jacob Young
The Orioles remain 7 ½ games behind in pursuit of the last Wild Card spot after last night’s 7-6, 10-inning loss to the Mets. Thirteen games separate them from the first-place Blue Jays.
There’s still a chance, but it’s barely a flicker.
Tomoyuki Sugano is trying to get back to the form that produced a 3.04 ERA through 12 starts. He’s registered an 8.87 ERA and 2.149 WHIP in his last five outings to leave his overall numbers at 4.44 and 1.307 in 93 1/3 innings.
Sugano has allowed seven home runs in his last four starts over 18 innings.
Jackson Holliday is the designated hitter tonight. Holliday has recorded an RBI in three straight games (five RBIs total) after collecting one in the previous nine games.
Last night’s game at Camden Yards moved the Orioles a little closer to the trade deadline and identifying as buyers or sellers. The players drawing interest from other clubs mostly are pending free agents and easy to figure out. They know how it works, their names appearing in various articles and outlets. Tune it out or let it become a distraction.
Tony Mansolino is experiencing another first as interim manager – handling a clubhouse that could undergo many changes before Aug. 1.
He executed a positive spin on the subject during yesterday’s media scrum, before a four-run lead disappeared in the eighth in a 7-6, 10-inning loss to the Mets.
“In a lot of ways, I think all those stories are kind of making my job easier because it’s motivating these guys,” he said. “A lot of these guys don’t want to go anywhere. They like it here, so as every story kind of comes across the desk a little bit or something gets tweeted or however it’s put out there - I don’t really pay attention to a whole lot of it myself – I know it kind of creates a lot of motivation for these guys.
“There’s a lot of chatter in there about trying to stay here, trying to get this thing going, so it’s kind of making my job a little bit easier in some ways.”
ST. LOUIS – So, anything interesting happen over the last 72 hours?
Suffice it to say, it's been a monumental few days around the Nationals, with arguably the most significant personnel moves the organization has ever made coming Sunday night after their loss to the Red Sox. For the first time since early 2009, Mike Rizzo is not the general manager of this team. For the first time since October 2017, Davey Martinez is not the manager of this team. The interim GM, Mike DeBartolo, shared in notable fashion Tuesday afternoon his vision for instituting "real change" in an organization that perhaps had grown stagnant. The interim manager, Miguel Cairo, shed tears as he described the internal conflict he felt when he was asked to replace his good friend in the dugout.
Meanwhile, the MLB Draft is now four days away, and the Nats have the No. 1 pick. The trade deadline is 22 days away, and DeBartolo has a whole lot to consider as he navigates his way through this critical stretch for the first time as the guy in charge. And then there are the matters of James Wood and MacKenzie Gore making their first All-Star Game (with Wood also participating in his first Home Run Derby), Keibert Ruiz going back on the 7-day injured list, Travis Sykora dealing with an injury at Double-A Harrisburg that will prevent him from pitching in the All-Star Futures Game and the fact the Nationals now employ two Luis Garcias on their 26-man roster.
You've probably got questions. I hopefully have answers. Use the comments section to submit your inquiries, and I'll do my best to answer them over the course of the morning ...
ST. LOUIS – By the time they took the field tonight, the Nationals had ample time to process the events of the last 48 hours. Not only did they have an off-day after arriving in St. Louis late Sunday night to consider the firing of their longtime general manager and manager, they also had a two-hour, 19-minute rain delay that pushed back first pitch of their series opener at Busch Stadium until 9:04 p.m. local time.
The question then was: What kind of effort would they give in their first game under an interim manager and GM? Would they be inspired by the shocking changes, or would they have trouble summoning up the energy to right this wayward ship?
The answer: The effort was fine, but the performance was pedestrian.
With Jake Irvin surrendering a pair of home runs and the Nationals lineup managing only one rally over the course of nine innings, Miguel Cairo found himself on the wrong end of a 4-2 loss to the Cardinals in his debut as the team’s interim manager. Mike DeBartolo, in his first game as interim GM, watched it all unfold from a booth adjacent to the press box, the one game he’ll watch in person this week as he now heads back to D.C. to oversee preparations for the No. 1 pick in Sunday’s MLB Draft.
"I like to win. I don't like to lose," Cairo said. "But the most important thing after the last 48 hours, the players, the guys were ready to play. You can tell the energy. You can tell they wanted to go out there and do their job. That's what we're looking for. We'll get them tomorrow."
